+ The Good Life

The Meaning of Covenant

The San Diego Presbytery publishes a document that highlights some of the distinctives of reformed expression of the Christian Faith.  Here's what they say about Christian Covenant Life

Covenant, in the cultural context of the Bible, described the strongest relationship of

love and loyalty between persons. It was a solemn relationship and bond, often with

explicit oaths and obligations, often sealed solemnly with the blood of sacrifice.

Reconciliation after hostility and conflict was often marked by a covenant

ceremony. A covenant was entered into by faith as a relationship of trust and

solemn promises; it was held together by faithfulness. Covenant faithfulness led to

blessing and life; breaking covenant invoked a curse. Covenants described the

relationship between rulers and subjects, wife and husband, business partners,

neighboring nations. God adapted this covenant model to describe his special

relationship and bond with the people he redeemed.

God’s covenants had different forms and details at different times in salvation

history (for example, with Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David), but they reflected a

single sovereign and gracious purpose to redeem, sanctify, and preserve a people

who belonged to God. The divine covenant was always initiated by God; it was

sustained by God’s faithfulness in spite of humankind’s history of unfaithfulness; it

was an expression of God’s steadfast love (Hebrew, hesed); and it reached a

culmination and fullness in the “new covenant” (Luke 22:20) established and

perfected by Jesus Christ.

In Jesus, the promised Messiah, we encounter personally and directly the Mediator

of God’s perfect and everlasting covenant (Hebrews 9:15). Jesus has perfectly

fulfilled the obligations of the covenant for us; he has demonstrated complete

faithfulness to God as a covenant partner. In his substitutionary death he took on

himself the curse for our covenant breaking, ended the hostility our sins had caused,

reconciled us and made us right with God. Those who put their faith in Christ are

spiritually united with him, enter the new covenant where there is salvation and

redemption, become members of the covenant community called the church, and

enjoy the covenant promises of eternal life and blessing.

Every believer is called to be a faithful and participating member of a local church,

where “the community of the new covenant” has local expression and where they

can be discipled into holiness and maturity. The community of the new covenant is

to be a demonstration of the supernatural reality and power of the kingdom of

God—what the world looks like and might become where God is acknowledged as

King; a community of love and wholeness; a ministry extending the healing,

deliverance, and grace that marked the life of Jesus and his disciples.

Scripture

Genesis 6:18; 9:8-17; 17:1-8; Exodus 19:3-6; 2 Samuel 7:12-16; Isaiah 9:6-7; Jeremiah

23:5-6; 31:31-34

Luke 22:20; Galatians 3:28; Ephesians 2:12-13; Hebrews 9:15; 1 Peter 2:9-10

Confessions

Scots Confession 3.16

Second Helvetic Confession 5.125-5.126

Confession of 1967 9.31

What Is Not Affirmed

Any doctrine—

• that promotes a covenant life which is to be lived out in a solitary manner, devoid of

community;

• that suggests that covenant life need not be different than the life of the unbeliever in

any profound way;

• that would seek to lay the foundation of our covenant life on anything other than or

contrary to God’s Word.

 

What is Christian "Election" Mean

The San Diego Presbytery publishes a document that highlights some of the distinctives of reformed expression of the Christian Faith.  Here's what they say about divine election.

Our salvation and sanctification are based entirely on God’s initiative and God’s

grace. It is not primarily about our choice but God’s choice. The Reformed

understanding of election is that God has chosen us in Christ for salvation and

service—

• To be redeemed,

• To be God’s own “treasured possession,” a holy nation and a kingdom of

priests,

• To live holy and exemplary lives, zealous for good works,

• Resulting in praise for the glory of God’s grace.

Our salvation is not an accident we stumble into or a destiny we create. It is God’s

gracious purpose for our life and it is for God’s glory.

God has elected us out of grace.

God has elected us from eternity.

We are elected in Christ, that is—

Christ is God’s elected Son, chosen to redeem God’s creation and to be Mediator

and Savior for humankind. Our election is not direct, but indirect—we are

elected on account of Christ, with the result that those who are now grafted into

Christ by faith are also be elected.

As those chosen by God, we are predestined to be conformed to the image of Jesus.

Our purpose, then, is to glorify God by our redeemed and sanctified life.

Our faith in Christ and our good works are evidence and confirmation that we are

chosen by God to be His.

Election is a doctrine intended to reassure Christians of the security of their

salvation and of the steadfast love of God for them, and to instill in them a sense of

divine purpose and a zeal for good works. 

A person may know with complete assurance, on the basis of the promises of

scripture and God’s faithfulness, that if they are trusting in Christ for their

salvation, they indeed are in Christ and are elected.

Scripture

Psalm 139:16; John 15:5, 8, 16; Ephesians 1:4-7, 11-13; Ephesians 2:10; 2 Timothy 1:9

Confessions

Scots Confession 3.08

Second Helvetic Confession 5.052, 5.053, 5.059-60

What Is Not Affirmed

Any doctrine—

• That denies God’s initiative in calling persons to Himself.

• That asserts that all people will ultimately be reconciled to God.

• That asserts a profession of faith without bearing any fruit.

 

Some Smooth Voices

 

The Gracious Work of God - Essential Tenets

The prebyterty of San Diego publishes a document outlining the essential tenets of the Reformed faith. Here's what they say about Salvation by Grace through Faith.

Salvation is God’s gracious work through Jesus Christ to reclaim humankind and

all creation from sin and its consequences. Salvation is a gift of God’s grace received

by faith. Christ’s righteousness and atonement are the sole basis for human

salvation. Faith in Christ is the only instrument by which this righteousness is

received by individual believers, resulting in their justification.

Justification is the righteousness of Christ imputed to a sinful woman or man

through faith alone in Christ. Their faith appropriates Christ’s atonement, resulting

in their sins atoned for and forgiven and God reckoning them to be righteous.

Scripture also describes salvation as a ransom or redemption from slavery (Mark

10:45); a sacrificial substitution (Christ’s death for our death); reconciliation of

sinners with a holy God; our sins being sacrificially expiated, satisfied, covered over,

forgiven, and removed. All of these ways describe how God has given us “the

forgiveness of sins, everlasting righteousness and salvation out of sheer grace solely

for the sake of Christ’s saving work.” (Heidelberg, 4.021)

Faith is (1) accepting the message of salvation as true and (2) trusting God to apply

this salvation to us. Faith is “certain knowledge” and “wholehearted trust,” that is

created in us by the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. In faith we accept, receive,

and rest “upon Christ alone for justification, sanctification, and eternal life, by

virtue of the covenant of grace.” (Westminster, 6.080)

Scripture

Mark 10:45; John 3:16; Acts 4:12; Romans 3:22-26; 5:1; Galatians 2:16; Ephesians 2:8-9

Confessions

Second Helvetic Confession 5.107-109, 5.112-113

Heidelberg Catechism 4.021, 4.060

Westminster Confession of Faith 6.080

Brief Statement of Faith 10.4

What is Not Affirmed

Any doctrine—

• that asserts that salvation can be obtained through other religions or that other

religions have equally valid solutions to the human problem, or that there is

salvation in some other name besides Jesus Christ

• that denies the radical sinfulness of human beings, their condemnation before a

holy God, that denies that human beings are lost apart from Christ, or denies their

need for a Savior

• that teaches that God saves or will save everybody (or nearly everybody)

regardless of their faith in Jesus Christ or whether they hear the gospel or not or

whether they put their faith explicitly in Jesus Christ or not.

 

The Atoning Work of Jesus -Essential Tenets

The prebyterty of San Diego publishes a document outlining the essential tenets of the Reformed faith. Here's what they say about the atoning work of Jesus Christ:

Jesus’ death on the Cross was the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world. In this

act of obedience to God’s will and love for humankind, Jesus acted as the divine

agent for the salvation of the world. In his death he perfectly fulfilled the office of

High Priest and was also the perfect sacrifice for sins—“the Lamb of God who takes

away the sin of the world.” (Jn 1:29) The Cross became an altar on which his life

was sacrificed as a substitute for ours, and satisfaction and expiation for sins were

completely accomplished. On the sole basis of the finished work of Christ on the

Cross, sinners may now be reconciled to a holy God and set free from their bondage

to sin and death to live for God in holiness and joy.

Exalted to the place of honor beside God the Father, Jesus Christ the eternal Son,

now Lord of heaven and earth, continues his saving work, advocating and

interceding on behalf of the church and functioning as our eternal prophet (God’s

living and revealed Word), priest (ever making intercession and mediation for us),

and king (ruling his church by Word and Spirit and with sovereign love and power).

Scripture

Matthew 1:21; Romans 3:25; 1 Corinthians 1:23-25; 2:2; 15:3; 2 Corinthians 5:19, 21;

Galatians 3:13; 6:14; Ephesians 1:19-23; Hebrews 9:11-12; 1 Peter 3:18; 1 John 2:2

Confessions

Scots Confession 3.09

Heidelberg Catechism 4.031, 4.037

Confession of 1967 9.09

What Is Not Affirmed

Any theology—

• that does not affirm as biblical and true the death of Christ as the central saving

act of our Christian faith, or

• that rejects these teachings—atonement, substitutionary sacrifice, expiation for

sins on the basis of Christ’s death—as obsolete, unworthy, unessential, or

irrelevant, or

• that seeks to substitute some other basis or to promote some “more culturally

relevant paradigm” for our salvation, justification, and reconciliation with God

than Christ’s death on the Cross for us.

We also do not affirm the notion that Christ’s atoning work is universally applied to all or

most of the human race, so that all or most are saved, regardless of their religion or nonreligion

and apart from hearing the gospel and believing in Christ.